Underwater Speleology
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UNDERWATER SPELEOLOGY UNDERWATER TABLE OF CONTENTS SPELEOLOGY NEWS The officitll publication c! the c..- Diving 3 Geologic Cataclysm Takes Cave Diver's Life Section cf the NatDwd s~ Socidy, Inc. 3 Parker Thrner: In Memoriam - Dennis Williams P.O. Box 950 • Branford. FL 32008-0950 6 Lost Back Issues Available 12 Notice to Instructors Editor: H. V. GREY 15 Cave Diving Manual P.O. Box 12 • Nokomis, Fl. 34274-0012 16 UWS receives NSS Graphic Arts Salon Honorable Mention (813) 484-~ • (813) 484-6665 (fax) EXPLORATION Board of Directors 8 A Sinkhole Cave In - Eduxmi Stoner Chahman: FRANK HOWARD 11 The World's Longest Underwater 334 Portico 0. • 0\esterfiBd, MO 63017 Cave Passages - Oliver Knab (314) 469-6133. 542..(838 (fax) 12 A Week in the Footsteps of Martel - Wlliam R. HJ11liday, M.D. Vice-Olairman: MARK UONARD Rl14, Box 136 • Lake Gty, Fl. 32ffi5 SAFETY (904) 752-100 6 The Safety Line - \\billy Sfwrl 1teasurer. BILL FOOTE 7 Recovery Team Area Coordinators - Capt. Henry Nicholscm 1433 5.E. 8th St. • Ocala, Fl. 32671 (904) 622-3488 BOOK REVIEW 10 The Darkness Beckons - Bill Mixon Seaetary: H. V. GREY See oontact infonnation above HUMOR 1hlining Chairman: JOE PROSSER 15 On the Lighter Side: 7400 N.W. 55th St. • Miami. Fl. 33166 "Commando Diver Specialty"' - Steoe Berman (:15) 592~146 (bus) • ~19 (res) (~) 593-2225 (fax) FRONT COVER ART Leadership Coontinator: DAN LlNs 1 By Joanna Florio-Jefferys 916 S.W. 13th Ave. • Ocala. Fl. 32671 (904) 6'BJJ749 Director at Large: JIM BoWDEN Copyright C 1991 by the Cave aving Section of the Natim.al SpEleological Society, Inc. All rip re!II!!Ved. No portion of ttis publicatim may be repoduced without writtm penrission of the NS&<DS. ()pinic:n P.O. Box 49461 • Austin. TX 7ffl65 ~within are not MCL'lSIIIrily the ollidal polky of the NSSOJS. (512) 9'Ji34.7Zl Mapdae Sublllillliou -We waaxne an news itans, articles, Lettenl to the Edita; phltos, slides, car toms, and other items of interest or importance to the cave-4iving anununity £root an members, subaaibers, and o4Nr lnten*d pctifs. They ahou1d be sent directly to the Editor 6lee address on left aiumn). W! can Piogram Coordinators also uae teet procea;ed In maet IIM<mtpetible funnats. (Pieue CXll\tact the Editor directly fur details and aJr1lll8l!l1lS' Abe Davis Aw.d..... ·-··-··-·······-··-· YW!ndy Short ~-The N$.Cili Boml. of Directcn has approved the :r:elnsti.tution of paid commerdal ad Accident Rile ·-···-··············-···-··-··-·····John Crea ~ iJr l.btrlmaflter Spda:llogy. Pleue CXll\tact the Editor fur !nfcm~ation and ~ 6lee address Activities Coordinator·-····················-····· Pete Butt on left cDumn). Biology ·-··-··-··-······-··-··········-··-··-·lA:. Jill Yager '111eNSS..Sc-DlviD&-Founded.ln 19(1,theNationalSpEI.eologicalSodetyjoinstogetherthousands Car1ography ·-··-······-·John Bwge. Frank Howard of individuals dedicated to the safe~ ecpioratioo, and CXJrllleJVation of caws. The first cave-diving lnftr In lJnDed Slats was in a 190 NSS BN/Idin. 1n 1948, NSS divas were respoosihle Cave Files Coordinator ·····-··-··-··-·Tom Gilleland mation _. publisbed the for the first caw diws in the United Statal~ SOlba. Prior to 1973, cave diving within the NSS was on a Compula" Application; ·········-··-····Tom Gilleland puzeiy 1ocallevti. That y.u aw the aution eli the NSS Cave Diving Sectim to provide a vehide fur lnftr ·-······-··-··········-·····-··-· Tom Mortis Conservation mallm exdlarfle. Today, wilh fNf!l750 members, the Cave Diving Section promotes safe cave diving through Foreign Mailings Garvin ·········-··················-·Mary llt'IJ1i..annuaW<Jrbhops;cavem-andca~tralnlngprogrami;warnlng.Qgninstallations;search,rescue, ICL6A ·····-··-··-··········-······-·-··-··-· YW!ndy Short and RlCOWI)' thrrugh the National Cave &.scue Commission; cave explcration and rna~ several texts Maps .•••••.. ·-···································· Frank Howard and publiations on cave diving; and the bimonthly magazine, I.Indm.utztcr Spthdogy. Pholognlphy ··········-··-··········-······-·Bob Jamwski NSS Membership-TheNationalSpeledogicalSocietywelcomes the interest of anyone who has a sincere Property Manager·-················-········· Lamar Hin!s ooncJ!m about the safety, study, expaation. and anevation of caws, wet or dry. You may join the NSS Publication; Olainnan.-··-··-··-·-··-· Lamar Hin!s either by writing directly to ils main office (National Speleological Society, Inc., Cave Avenue, Huntsville, AL Publicalionl Coon:iinaiiJr ······-··-··-·Gene Hellwig 35810) or to the Cave ~Section. Annual membaship is $25.00 and includes subaaiption to the NSS's REscue/Reoovery T&m~ ·-·Capt. Henry Ndd;on monthly magazlne. NSS N-. as weJl as votillg priVilep and discounts on publications and CXli\Velllior6. Safety Committee (Nor1h) •• _. Randy Kwiatkowski CDS l'dealbemblp - As a sub-organization or "sectionH of the NSS, the Cave aving Section is subject Safety Committee {South)······-········· YW!ndy Short to the bylaws and ethics of the N!D. Membenhip in the Cave Diving Sectim is open to anyone who is a Science Committee ....••........•... ·-········· Tom Monis member In good &tanding of the NS5. Annual membenhipia $5.00 pa- y.u and includes subeaiptioo to the Sump Diving Pro;ect······-·······-··-·John Sd\weyen CIFs bimonthly masazine, ~ SptU!ology, IS weJl as voting privileges and disaJunts on publiations Survey ·····-··-··-.. ············-················· Lamar Hin!s and 1oWll"kshops. like to keep current on ca~ TedlniqUI!S •.••• -··-····························· Wlody Jasper Sub.:ription-H you do not wish to join the NS5 and CDS, but would ~ CooldinatDr .••..................•.. Hany Awrill events, ecplcn.tion and tedlndogy, you are invited to subsaibe to~ SptUology for $15.00 pa- year. 2 • UNOORWATIR ~ • Vol. 18, No. 6 • Nowmber/Docember, 1991 GEOLOGIC CATACLYSM TAKES CAVE DIVER'S LIFE n the evening of Sunday, No that the level of the basin (the size of a the decompression bottles or being 0 vember 17, veteran cave-diving small lake) dropped fully a foot in only found by the decompressing divers explorer and NACO instructor Parker 15 minutes. (Under normal conditions, who had gone back into the cave in the Turner (NSS #27953) died as the result Indian Springs is a 5th magnitude low visibility to search for them. of what is believed to have been a mas spring and empties out into a small It is believed that Turner removed sive geological disturbance deep in the creek. In more than 15 years of being his tanks and pushed them ahead of Woodville karst-plain area, which cave dived, it has never been known to him in order to try to negotiate the resulted in the sudden and extremely syphon, and has not been considered an restriction. Only the extreme ex forceful reversal of Indian Springs near unstable system.) perience, skill and level-headedness of Tallahassee, Aorida and disturbed the A wide, but fairly low bedding both divers allowed them to successful River Sinks system some 7-8 miles plane area not too far from the cave ly negotiate the rubble restriction. It is away. entrance, approximately 100' long, was considered nothing short of a miracle Turner and five other cave divers heavily inundated by rubble and silt, that all six divers were not caught deep were in the Spring at the time of the which completely covered the line and in the system when the geologic reversal. Four of the divers were al greatly restricted passage. !Rspite this, cataclysm occurred. ready at decompression, and noticed a both Gavin and Turner slowly but suc In addition to his many important sudden severe silting at the mouth of cessfully negotiated this now very dif leadership roles in the NACO, Turner the cave. Turner and his dive buddy, ficult, wide bedding plane in zero was the Cooniinator of the NSS-spon Bill Gavin, were more than 1000' back visibility and without a permanent line, sored Woodville Karst Plain Project, in the system on their way back from a although, following established emer and Coordinator of the Underwater 7-hour dive, when the sudden flow gency procedure, they had deployed a Speleology Unit for Aorida State reverse took place, sucking in an enor safety line. University. He will be greatly missed mous amount of rubble and debris Unfortunately, due to the extreme by the ca~iving community and is down the slope of the basin and restriction caused by the syphon rubble, survived by a daughter. • entrance cavity. the divers were separated, and Turner Observers on the surface reported tragically ran out of air before finding PARKER TURNER: IN MEMORIAM by Dennis Williams cNss #18261> n September, 1982 I was helping to stayed for a week. After a some equip the class Remipedia in Quebrada for her I staff a NAUI instructor course being ment changes and a few warm-up to add to her studies. Jill and I had first held at the Aorida Institute of Tedmol dives, I took Jeff Bozanic on a Lucayan found remipedes during the late '70's ogy. A young California instructor Caverns 3,000' rinky dink that must in Lucayan Caverns. By 1984 Jill had stopped by to see how we East Coast have made that "suspended" sleeping remipede specimens from several caves guys ran an instructor course. In addi bag seem like being in his mother's in the Bahamas, the Canary Islands, and tion to being a NAUI instructor, this guy arms. Jeff, the rock climber, became a Turks and Caicos. The Mexican karst was a technical rock climber, someone cave diver. seemed a likely place for this oar-footed who had figured out how to enjoy the In 1984 Jeff was vacationing on speedster of open cave to live. We night in a sleeping bag held high above Cozumel when he found the cave sys found a lot of world-class biology in any reasonably sized horizontal surface tem now known as Quebrada. He and Quebrada, but no remipedes. by a piton crammed in a crack. When I went to Cozumel that same year and After a couple of years of ''hanging he found out that I was a cave diver he began the exploration of this remark around" with me, Jeff had gained too said I was crazy.